GRABARKA, GM. NURZEC STACJA, POW. SIEMIATYCKI
Legends say that the origins of the Orthodox worship center on Mount Grabarka date back to the Middle Ages, when monks from Mielnik hid here from Tartar invasions. Written sources about the place date back to the 18th century. At that time a Greek Catholic sanctuary was supposed to function on Grabarka. The holy mountain was also a place of refuge for the population fleeing the plague. At the foot of the hill there is a miraculous spring framed by a well and a stream flowing out of it. According to legend, during the plague one of the residents of Siemiatycze had an apparition, during which he heard a voice telling him to go with the cross to Mount Grabarka and then he would be saved. The paroch of the Uniate parish, Rev. Pawel Smolenski, recognized this as divine intervention and organized a pilgrimage of the faithful to the indicated place, from where a spring was flowing at the foot of the mountain. Pilgrims who drank the water and washed their bodies were healed. In the same year, a wooden chapel was erected on top of the hill as a sign of gratitude.
Today, Mount Grabarka is the most important place of Orthodox worship in Poland. It is a popular pilgrimage site. At the top of the hill is the Transfiguration Orthodox Church, surrounded by hundreds of crosses. On the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (known as Spas Day on August 19), pilgrims from all over Poland, Belarus and Ukraine come to Grabarka. The faithful usually travel the last stretch of the road on their knees. More crosses are brought and set up. Pilgrims wash their bodies with miraculous water from the stream.
Geographic coordinates: 52.4152, 23.0091
Sources of information: Pine 2001, 29-41; field queries
